APR 20 
264 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Texas. 
Mrs. Nellie Miller, Williamson County. 
Mrs. C. M. DeSel, Kaufman County. 
Miss Tullula Herron, Burleson County. 
Miss Mary Herron, Burleson County. 
Miss Ella Herron, Burleson County. 
Tennessee. 
Miss Jennie Hutsell, Meigs County. 
Mrs. W. S. Waite, Bedford County. 
Mrs. Ferdinand Shultz, Coffee County. 
Mrs. C. H. Stilz, Sumner County. 
Mrs. L. A. Holm, Hamilton County. 
Mrs. Elizabeth A. Fulkerth, Davidson County 
Mrs. H. S. Bennett, Morgan County. 
Utah. 
Kate Jean Boan, Uintah County.’ 
Vermont. 
Mrs. R. L. Town, Washington County. 
Mary H. Pitkin, Washington County. 
Mrs. Celia Eastman, Washington County. 
Mrs. Florence E. Lewis, Washington County. 
Miss Eva M. Johnson, Windham County 
Mrs. J. H. Capen, Windham County. 
Miss J. Burnett, Chittenden County. 
Mrs. Wm. Burnett, Chitteuden County. 
Mrs. Dr. Geo. Davenport, Orange County. 
Miss C. T. Meigs, Franklin County. 
Mrs. Elizabeth A. Fossett, Addison County. 
Loretta A. Kingsbury, Windsor County. 
Mrs. Harriet Lynch, Addison County. 
Mrs. M. M. Thorne, Orange County. 
Mrs. S. B. Alexander, Windsor County. 
Martha Harris, Caledonia County. 
Mrs. A. E. Bliss, Chittenden County. 
Miss Gertrude E. Peet, Addison County. 
Virginia. 
Miss Mag Naff, Franklin County. 
Mrs. T. C. Naff, Franklin County. 
Miss Hattie Koiner, Augusta County. 
Mrs. J. W. Todd, Augusta County. 
Mrs. Maggie E. Carter, Wythe County. 
Catherine E. Rodgers, Wythe County. 
Ed. A. Andrews, Wythe County. 
Charlotte H. Hayes, Fauquier County. 
Mrs. Julia E. Kelley, Washington County. 
Miss Grace Kelley, Washington County. 
Miss Margie Kelley, Washington County. 
Miss Lizzie M. Garlick, King and Queen 
County. 
Mrs. S. V. Field, Fauquier County. 
Mrs. C. A. Durkee, Cumberland County. 
Anna M. Pitkin, Prince William County. 
Mrs. Annie H. Smith, Northumberland 
County. 
Fannie S. Kenyon, Fairfax County. 
Mrs. Mamie C. Layman, Botetourt County. 
Mrs. Allie Dillard, Hanover County. 
Mrs. C. G. Harnsberger, Rockingham County. 
Mrs. J. W. Melhorn, Rockingham Couaty. 
Mollie E. Wassum, Smyth County. 
Mary Ann Ager, Wythe County. 
West Virginia. 
Mary C. Hurley, Wetzel County. 
Mrs. T. J. Hugus, Ohio County. 
Washington Territory. 
Mary W. Hannah, Thurston County. 
Lillian J. Hannah, Thurston County. 
Mrs. Julius Horton, King County. 
Miss Katie Merriman, Skagit County. 
Josephine Beasley, Skagit County. 
Mrs. Elizabeth Rose, Kittitass County. 
Mrs. Mary Hagam, Garfield County. 
Susie Deneffe, Spokane Couuty. 
Mrs. I. N. Peyton, Spokane County. 
Mrs. F. J. lde, Spokane County. 
Mrs. S. S. Keister, Kittitass Couuty. 
Mrs. Z. H. Robbins, Whatcom County. 
Mrs. Jennie Brewer, Chehalis County. 
Mrs. S. F. Bennett, Garfield Couuty. 
Mrs. Etta M. Kline, Whatcom County. 
Mrs. L. A. Tift, San Juan County. 
Mrs. W. A. Davies, Lincoln County. 
Mrs. J. H. Chillberg, Skagit County. 
Annie Anderson, Kitsap County. 
Mrs. I. Thrasher, Walla Walla County. 
Mrs. Margaret Smith, Skagit County. 
Wisconsin. 
Mrs. R. Farrington, Buffalo County. 
Mrs. Nellie A. Jackson, Waukesha County. 
Mrs. A. I. Gale, Waukesha Couuty. 
Ruth Jones, Washington County. 
Clara Jones, Washington County. 
Mrs. I. Van Wie, Kenosha County. 
Mrs. W. H. Abbott, Rock County. 
Mrs. H. D. Parson, Fond Du Lac County. 
Mrs. B. C. Dunlap, Walworth County. 
Mrs. Jas. B. Nye, La Crosse County. 
Mrs. C. E. Hogeboom, Eau Claire County. 
Elizabeth A. Taylor, Dane County. 
Mrs. C. M. Latshaw, Vernon County. 
Isabel Van Loon, La Crosse County. 
Mrs. Mary Van Loon, La Crosse County 
Mrs. A. J. Jones, Sauk County. 
Mrs. Meta S. Webb, Sauk County. 
Mrs. P. M. Sheldon, Sheboygan County 
Mrs. Joseph McFarland, Jefferson County. 
Mrs. L. A. Lane, Waushara County. 
Mrs. B. M. Smith, Columbia County. 
Mrs. Julia Hartnell, Kenosha County. 
Mrs. E. S. Lincoln, La Crosse County. 
Mrs. L, Ansley, St. Croix County. 
Wyoming Territory. 
Laura B. Fly, Carbon County. 
Mrs. Eliza Day, Johnson County. 
Canada. 
Mrs. Robt. Oswald, Victoria County. 
Mrs. Maggie A. Armour, Victoria County. 
Miss S. E. Adams, Lincoln County. 
Mrs. C. H. Hulets, Oxford County. 
Mrs. Ed. Eckardt, York County. 
Miss Maggie Artou, York County. 
Miss Mary Arton, York County. 
Mrs. B. F. Closson, York County. 
Miss M. MacGlashan, Lambton County. 
Mrs. Martha Williams, Lambton County. 
C. S. A. Taylor, Ontario County. 
Mrs. Michael Bowen, Welland County. 
Mrs. Dan’l Dunn, Algoma County. 
Mrs. D. E. Evans, Vancouver County. 
Mary E. Blagden, Wentworth County. 
Miss Stan way, Hochelaga County. 
Eliza S. Dickinson, Durham County. 
Mrs. A. Miller, Hastings County. 
Mrs. Joseph Chapman, Leeds County. 
Mrs. Russell Smither, New Westminster 
County, 
Miss E. Fowler, Lisgar County. 
Susan Pickard, Blanchard County. 
Miss Maud McCullough, Windsor County. 
Mrs. Jno. Aldons, Stamford County. 
Mrs. Thos. Geddes, Dumfries—South. 
Mrs. Alex. Patterson, Lincoln Couuty. 
Mrs. Edwin Keeler, Augusta County. 
Mrs. Jno. Hogg,- 
Jane Kearns,- 
Mrs. Jessie Fox, Delaware County. 
No State Given. 
Mary M. Laird, Coalville. 
Margaret S. Bowley, Kingston. 
I built a fire-place in one corner of one 
room of my new house and find it more out 
of the way than anywhere else; also the chim¬ 
ney was not in the way of our central end 
window in the half story above. The chim¬ 
ney draws well, but the house is so tight that 
if a little air is not given at a transom or win¬ 
dow when building a fire, it smokes some¬ 
what. Opening either threw a cold draft across 
the room. So I took up the hearth, broke a 
hole in the brick wall which encircled it aud 
held the dirt and sand on which the hearth 
was laid, pusnea a six-incn-stove pipe 
through under the house, and by 
joining another joint to it, and lay¬ 
ing the second joint in the sand under 
the hearth brick, I had a draft from under 
the house coming up freely under the fore¬ 
stick in the tire. I should say that a short 
elbow turns it upward under the forestick. 
When all doors are shut, this draft is very 
strong and one can start a fire on a cold morn¬ 
ing very quickly and make a very hot fire in 
a much shorter time than without it. I can 
use green wood, or with dry wood I can glaze 
the brick lining the fire-place if I let all the 
draft on. I keep an old stove hearth over the 
opening, and raise the inner edge with a bat 
Mattsville, Ind. e. h. c. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must bo accompanied by the name 
and address of the writer to Insure attention. Before 
asking a question, pleaso see If It is not answered In 
our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions at 
one time. Put questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
MAKING EGG PLANTS “LAY.” 
P. B. C., Catonsville, Md. —Won’t some one 
give me an egg-plant special—just a piece 
of a column? I would like to have the inside 
facts about how to make them lay. Are 
commercial fertilizers good? It so, how much 
and what kind? This year mine made a lux¬ 
uriant growth of foliage and bore but very 
little fruit. What was the probable cause? 
Is it best to save one’s own seed? What is the 
best variety for market? How close ought 
they to be planted?” 
ANSWERED BY WILLIAM FALCONER. 
Sometimes I have had an excellent show 
for an early crop of fruit; but somehow or 
other the fruit failed to set and swell. The 
plants would look thrifty and have lots of 
blossoms in June, but they wouldn’t begin to 
set fruit till July. I have blamed the rain 
aud chilly nights for interfering with the fer¬ 
tilization of the flowers, and, too, I have 
blamed myself for not keeping a few hives of 
honey-bees.to assist me in [setting [the fruits 
and seeds of my trees, flowers and vegetables. 
I attach a good deal of importance to this 
honey-bee question and am satisfied that bees 
mean fruit if the climatic conditions are at all 
favorable. New York Improved is the 
favorite variety, Black Pekin is also much 
grown, and I also raise some Early Long 
Purple for early. The last-named is quite 
prolific, dwarfor aud bushier than the New 
York and some days earlier, and while good 
enough in its way for home use, it has neither 
size nor good appearance enough to commend 
it as a market variety. The White and 
Striped are also edible, but not worth grow¬ 
ing for this purpose; they are good enough to 
grow to make up a number of varieties for 
exhibition purposes; but for no other use that 
I know of. They are recommended as decora¬ 
tive plants, but I have always considered them 
very far-fetched garden ornaments. For egg 
plants to come in about the end of June, I 
sow them in a hot-house in February, and 
prick off aud pot the seedlings as their 
growth demands it, till by the first of May 
they are in eight or nine-inch pots. During 
all this time they are grown in a temperature 
of not less than 70 degrees at night; if it runs 
up to 90 degrees by day it’s all right. Now, 
from the 20th of April till the end of May, is 
the most critical period in the life of these 
egg plants; the bright, warm days are apt to 
induce us to expose our plants too much, 
with the idea that it is good for the plants, 
also with the notion of hardening them off; 
but this is a mistake. Keep them hot at 
all times, close except during the forenoon 
warm sunshiny blinks, and especially warm 
at night, no matter how hot the weather may 
be. And when they come into bloom—about 
the first of May—fertilize them artificially, 
that is, with a camel’s-hair brush in the fore¬ 
noon, and don’t plant them out till the first of 
June, and then only if they are well set with 
fruit, well inured to the weather for a week 
or two previous, and in warm sunny ground. 
If they are planted out when in bloom but 
not set with fruit, the flowers will be likely to 
drop off without settiug fruit. For my main 
crop I sow in a hot-house about the end of 
March and grow on in pots in warm quarters 
till towards the end of May when I harden 
them off gradually and plant them out at 
the end of May or early in June. Had I to 
raise them in hot-beds I would not sow them 
before the middle of April, and then in a 
fresh, brisk bed. We often make sad mistakes 
with hot-beds. A hot-bed that is fresh and 
brisk about the first of April is apt to be cold 
enough before the end of the month, and as 
egg plants cannot bear cold,it is far better to 
delay sowing till the middle of the month and 
then between manure heat and sun heat drive 
the plants without any check from first to 
last. Hot-beds in March are hard to manage; 
the weather is cold, often dull, and the beds 
need a deal of covering, and as we have to 
keep them close so long, the seedlings often 
drop off or come up spindling. Our main- 
crop plants usually give us fruit about the 
10th of July, and about the 20th of the month 
are in pretty good bearing. We don’t wait 
till the fruit is as big as a pumpkin before we 
use it. We begin cutting when the Long 
Purple is about the size of a Bartlett pear or 
the New York about as big as an Alexander 
apple. We like rich, loamy, well drained 
land, and a sheltered but sunny exposure. 
We plant in rows three feet apart and 2% 
feet asunder in the row. We use barn-yard 
manure only. Last year the cold, wet May 
left the ground in poor condition for tropical 
plants till well into June, and the heat and 
drought of June had hardly established the 
plants when cold, wet weather set in in July, 
and although egg plants grew well after mid¬ 
summer they did not fruit as early or as 
freely as they generally do. Egg plant seed 
is quite cheap, and I always have had as good 
success with bought seed as with what I have 
saved myself. 
ALL ABOUT WILLOW CULTURE. 
Several Subscribers .—Will somebody who 
has had long experience in the business tell us 
how to grow, cure and sell basket willows? 
ANSWERED BY H. W. HORN. 
The kind of land best adapted is such that 
it will retain moisture throughout the summer, 
but will not be too wet. Land that has sur¬ 
face water, such as springy ground, is not 
well adapted for a good growth of willows, as 
it is too cold. If, on the other hand, the soil 
gets very dry during the growing season such 
as some of our tamarack swamps here in 
Western New York, it isn’t at all adapted for 
successful willow culture. Very good crops 
of willows are raised on what is called creek 
and river bottom laud, but in nearly all such 
cases, the willows must be cut in the fall 
as the floods would do much damage. For 
culture, plow the land in the spring, (or, 
better still, in early fall,) aud give it a thor¬ 
ough harrowing aud roll if you can, then take 
a stout line the length of the land to be * 
plantod, and draw it tight, fasten a sharp 
stick to each end to hold it, and you are ready 
for planting. Have the cuttings about 10 
inches long. They should be from two or 
three-year-old willows. Be careful to have 
the right side down; and stick them close to the 
line at least two-thirds of their length in the 
ground and about 10 inches apart in the row, 
the rows being two feet and nine inches apart. 
If the rows are further apart the willows will 
be very apt to grow crooked from the buts. 
Cultivate thoroughly the first and second 
seasons, to keep the weeds down. Thereafter 
the willows will do that. As regards the 
proper time for cutting,unless the willows are 
to be peeled in the sap, they should be cut in 
the fall as soon as all the leaves are down. 
They are then steamed, a process which is 
simple and easily learned—and peeled with a 
small hand-peeler and also by a machine. 
Regarding the latter, to my knowledge none 
has yet been invented that gives perfect satis¬ 
faction, as those now used are very apt to 
split the willows. Here is another point in 
favor of fall cutting: if a willow plantation 
is so located that the snow will be badly 
drifted in it much damage will be done; but 
this, of course, is not the case in the Southern 
States. To peel the willows in the sap, they 
are tied in bunches of about 40 pounds each. 
The lower band should be about six to eight 
inches from the buts. Set thorn In a shallow 
pond of wate’’ about two inches deep. For 
that purpose the buts must be quite even. 
Then as soon as each row of bundles is set in, 
with a knife cut the upper band off. The fol¬ 
lowing point is a very important one 
the neglecting of which, years ago, 
caused myself aud others serious losses. 
When the willows are put in the water, a pole 
or rail should be fastened between at least 
every third row of bundles to prevent high 
winds from blowing them over to one side; 
for if that once Happens and you should not 
get near them for some time the consequence 
would be disastrous. The poles should be 
three „o four feet above the water. As to 
peeling: just as soon as the buds are fairly 
open and the leaves show,then peeling begins. 
The willows are then dried by spreading them 
out in the open air bound in bundles of about 
50 pounds. The binding is all done with green 
willows, and my mode of packing them so 
that they will stand much handling and ar¬ 
rive at their destination in good order is 
something that I can show better than I can 
describe. In regard to selling, there are 
markets for them in nearly all of the large 
cities east of the Mississippi river. 1 ship 
mine to Buffalo and New York City. At 
present the prices are so low that I have al¬ 
most quit that business, and am now in the 
black raspberry line. Last summer Isold my 
sap-peeled willows for five cents per pound. 
My crop of last fall I steam-peeled aud sold 
recently for four cents per pound. Green, 
they are worth here at present about §14 00 
per ton, and it takes about 2j^ tons or over of 
green to make one ton of peeled willows, a 
fact which is generally ignored by those who 
write on the subject of willow culture. The 
yield will be according to the quality of soil, 
and may be anywhere from three to six tons 
per acre. The first season’s growth is good 
only for nurserymen’s use. Cut back to the 
old stock and as close as possible every time. 
REMEDIES FOR BLIGHT ON FRUIT TREES. 
J. W. U., Cleveland, Ohio. —1.1 read in some 
of the agricultural papers last fall, of a wash 
for pear trees, to be used for the prevention 
of blight, consisting of two ouucos of carbolic 
acid, 10 pounds of sulphur, and one peck of 
lime. I went to an experienced druggist to 
get the sulphur and carbolic acid. He said 
more of the efficient constituent of sulphur 
was contained in roll sulphur, and that I 
ought to take that, aud not the flour of sul¬ 
phur, but I could not make that so fine that 
it would not clog the sprayer. He also said 
that I ought to take the refined carbolic acid; 
but that is much more expensive than the 
crude. It is strange that men who write or 
speak of such recipes do not speak more defi¬ 
nitely. Should I use the flour of sulphur 
and the crude carbolic acid ? 2.1 lost a number 
of pear trees last year; was the disease blight? 
When I first discovered it blood-like watery 
drops were running down the limbs, and on 
cutting into the bark I discovered that the 
inner bark had many small reddish streaks 
through it. On some of the trees the leaves 
died and the limbs shriveled, but at the same 
time, several feet down the limbs where 
there was no external appearance of auythiug 
being wrong, I found these reddish streaks in 
the bark, aud the inner layer of the bark 
next the wood had a reddish tinge and in 
some cases while the top was beginning to be 
affected 1 would find the bark partly dowu 
the tree not affected, or but little, while down 
the truuk of the tree the bark was already 
dead or nearly so. 
Anh.— 1. The druggist may be correct in 
